solomon consumer behavior ch16

Cultural Influences on Consumer

Behavior

Chapter 16

16-2

Understanding Culture

• Culture = society’s personality– The accumulation of shared meanings, rituals,

norms, and traditions among members– Discussion: If your culture were a person, how

would you describe its personality traits?

• Culture is the lens through which we view products– “Culture shock”– One’s culture determines product priorities and

mandates a product’s success/failure

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Understanding Culture (Cont’d)

• Products can reflect underlying cultural processes of a particular period:– The TV dinner– Cosmetics made of natural

materials without animal testing– Pastel carrying cases for condoms

• Cultural system function areas:– Ecology– Social structure– Ideology

• Worldview and ethos

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Understanding Culture (Cont’d)

• Dimensions of cultural variability– Power distance– Uncertainty avoidance– Masculinity/femininity– Individualism vs. collectivism

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Understanding Culture (Cont’d)

• Norms– Enacted norms– Crescive norms

• Custom• More• Conventions

– All three crescive norms combine to define a culturally appropriate behavior

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Discussion

• When you go out on a first date, identify the set of crescive norms that are operating– Describe specific behaviors each person

performs that make it clear he or she is on a first date

– What products and services are affected by these norms?

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Myths and Rituals• Every culture develops

stories/practices that help its members to make sense of the world– Other cultures’ myths/rituals

can seem bizarre• “Magical” products and interest

in occult tend to be popular when members of a society feel overwhelmed and powerless

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Myths• A story containing symbolic

elements that represent the shared emotions/ideals of a culture– Conflict between opposing

forces– Outcome serves as moral

guide for people– Reduces anxiety

• Little Red Riding Hood– Cannibalism, incest, and

promiscuity

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Myths (Cont’d)

• Marketers often pattern messages along a mythic structure– McDonald’s golden arches, Ronald McDonald

vs. the Hamburglar, and Hamburger University

• Myths/legends of corporations– Nike: “corporate storytellers”

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Functions and Structure of Myths

• Four functions of myths– Metaphysical– Cosmological– Sociological– Psychological

• Underlying structure of myths– Binary opposition– Mediating figure

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Myths Aboundin Modern Popular Culture

• Myths are often found in comic books, movies, holidays, and commercials– Consumer fairy tales– Monomyths: Spiderman and Superman– Many movies/commercials present characters

and plot structures that follow mythic patterns• Gone With the Wind• E.T.: The Extraterrestrial• Star Trek• La Llorona

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Rituals

• Sets of multiple, symbolic behaviors that occur in a fixed sequence and that tend to be repeated periodically

• Many consumer activities are ritualistic– Trips to Starbucks– “Pulling” the perfect pint of Guinness

• College campus rituals

• Tailgating at college/pro football games

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Table 16.1 (Abridged):Types of Ritual Experience

Primary Behavior Source Ritual Type Examples

Cosmology Religious Baptism, meditation

Cultural Values Rites of passage Cultural

Graduation, holidays, Super Bowl

Group Learning Civic Parades, elections

Group Fraternity initiation, office luncheons

Family Mealtimes, bedtimes, Christmas

Individual aims and emotions

Personal Grooming, household rituals

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Rituals (Cont’d)

• Many businesses supply ritual artifacts to consumers– Wedding rice, birthday candles, diplomas, etc.– Online gift registries

• Consumers often employ a ritual script– Identifies artifacts as well as the sequence in

which they are used and who uses them• Graduation programs, etiquette books

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Grooming Rituals

• Virtually all consumers have private grooming rituals– Sequences of behaviors that aid transition from

private to public self (or back again)– Inspires confidence, cleanses body of dirt– Before-and-after phenomenon

• Private/public and work/leisure personal rituals– Beauty rituals reflect transformation from natural

state to social world or vice versa

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Gift-Giving Rituals• Consumers procure the perfect

object, meticulously remove price tag, carefully wrap it, then deliver it to recipient– Store-bought objects, homemade

items, or services

• Gift giving as form of:– Economic exchange– Symbolic exchange– Social expression

• Exchange-oriented in early relationship stages, then altruistic as relationship develops

• Third-party influence on gift giving

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Gift-Giving Rituals (Cont’d)

• Every culture prescribes certain occasions and ceremonies for giving gifts

• Business gifts = define/maintain professional relationships, improve employee morale, and result in higher sales

• Stages of gift-giving ritual– Gestation

• Structural vs. emergent motivational event

– Presentation– Reformulation

• Appropriateness of gift and reciprocity norm

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Gift-Giving Rituals (Cont’d)

• Japanese gift-giving rituals– Symbolic meaning of gift: duty to others in social

group– Giri: giving is moral imperative– Kosai: reciprocal gift-giving obligations to

relatives/friends

• Self-gifts– Socially acceptable way to reward ourselves– Discussion: Have you ever given yourself a gift?

• If so, why did you do it and how did you decide what to get?

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Holiday Rituals

• Most holidays are based on a myth with a character at center of story– Consumers perform ritualistic behaviors unique to

those occasions to appeal to their deep-seated needs– Ritual artifacts and scripts

• Marketers find ways to encourage gift giving• Businesses invent new occasions to capitalize

on need for cards/ritual artifacts– Secretaries’ Day and Grandparents’ Day

• Retailers elevate minor holidays to major ones to provide merchandising opportunities– Cinco de Mayo

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Christmas

• Myths/rituals: Santa’s adventures and mistletoe• Began as a publicly rowdy celebration• Santa = champion of materialism

– Appears in stores and shopping malls– Socializes children to expect a reward when they are

good (we get what we deserve)

• Discussion: “Christmas has become just another opportunity to exchange gifts and stimulate the economy.” Do you agree? Why or why not?

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Halloween

• Its rituals are unusual…– Primarily involves nonfamily members– Celebrates evil and death– Encourages threats of “tricks” for treats

• Antifestival: distorts symbols associated with other holidays– Witch = inverted mother figure; resurrection of ghosts;

evil jack-o-lantern– We act out uncharacteristic behaviors and try on new

roles

• Second most popular party night for adults

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Rites of Passage• Special times marked by a change in social

status– Every society sets aside times at which such changes

occur• Puberty, death, divorce, dating, bar/bat mitzvah

• Three phases:– Separation– Liminality– Aggregation

• Practices vary across cultures but are rich in symbolic value– Funeral rituals negotiate social identities of deceased

through expression of material/symbolic wealth

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Discussion

• Describe the three stages of the rite of passage associated with graduating from college

• “Fraternity hazing is just a natural rite of passage that should not be prohibited by universities.” Do you agree?

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Sacred and Profane Consumption

• Sacred (“set apart” objects/events) vs. profane consumption (ordinary)

• Domains of sacred consumption– Sacred places: religious/mystical and country

heritage• Contamination• Theme parks• Home as a particularly sacred place• Discussion: For many Disney is a sacred place.

Do you agree? Why or why not?

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Sacred and Profane Consumption (Cont’d)

• Domains of sacred consumption (cont’d)– Sacred people

• Celebrity autograph

– Sacred events• Public events• Sports• Tourism (“at home” vs. “away”)

– Souvenirs• Local products, pictorial images,

“piece of the rock,” literal representations of the site, markers

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Desacralization

• When a sacred item/symbol is removed from its special place or is duplicated in mass quantities (becomes profane)– Souvenir reproductions

• Religion has somewhat become desacralized– Fashion jewelry– Christmas and Ramadan as secular,

materialistic occasions

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Sacralization• When ordinary objects, events,

and people take on sacred meaning– Super Bowl, Elvis Presley, Dallas

Cowboys• Objectification through

contamination and collections– Ruby slippers from The Wizard of

Oz and phaser from Star Trek– Collecting vs. hoarding

• Collecting as a socially acceptable form of “worship,” as an aesthetic experience, and as extension of self

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